![コンビニ人間 [Konbini ningen] by Sayaka Murata](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1469286247l/31203000._SX98_.jpg "コンビニ人間 [Konbini ningen] by Sayaka Murata")
82 books
—
28 voters
Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.
Start by marking “Territory of Light” as Want to Read:
Territory of Light
by
Territory of Light is the luminous story of a young woman, living alone in Tokyo with her three-year-old daughter. Its twelve, stand-alone fragments follow the first year of her separation from her husband. The novel is full of light, sometimes comforting and sometimes dangerous: sunlight streaming through windows, dappled light in the park, distant fireworks, dazzling
...more
Get A Copy
Paperback, 122 pages
Published
April 5th 2018
by Penguin Classics
(first published 1978)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Reader Q&A
To ask other readers questions about
Territory of Light,
please sign up.
Recent Questions
This question contains spoilers…
(view spoiler)
Community Reviews
Showing 1-57
Start your review of Territory of Light
Mothering in Japan
Looking down at the stagnant green water, I could picture as in a dream or a film that spot as it had appeared back then, some fifteen years earlier: a spot clad in flowers and fruit trees, where the sunshine seemed to have congealed. It was bright and tranquil, disquietingly so. No one must ever know about this place that made me yearn to dissolve until I became a particle of light myself. The way that light cohered in one place was unearthly. I gazed at its stillness without ...more
Looking down at the stagnant green water, I could picture as in a dream or a film that spot as it had appeared back then, some fifteen years earlier: a spot clad in flowers and fruit trees, where the sunshine seemed to have congealed. It was bright and tranquil, disquietingly so. No one must ever know about this place that made me yearn to dissolve until I became a particle of light myself. The way that light cohered in one place was unearthly. I gazed at its stillness without ...more
A woman in Tokyo is left by her husband, alone she must raise her two year old daughter. There are twelve segments, and each covers a glimpse into their lives. They find an apartment, she still needs to work do her daughter attends daycare. We are privy to her personal thoughts as she draws us into their lives. She loses her temper, she gets depressed, wondering how she can go on, keep doing all she is doing. Her husband shows up at the unlikliest of times, though he is living with another
...more
A spare meditation on single motherhood, Territory of Light chronicles a year in the life of a woman living in Tokyo as she copes with her recent separation from her husband. The novella begins with the newly single woman and her young daughter moving into a top-floor apartment filled with light and the hope of a bright future, but things quickly dim. The unnamed woman’s daughter grows angry, her husband begins to stalk her, her job becomes too demanding. Told from the perspective of the
...more
I enjoyed Territory of Light and found it sufficiently absorbing, but now I'm finding that I don't have a whole lot to say about it. It's a simple story about motherhood told from the perspective of a newly single woman coming to terms with the failure of her marriage - it's a quiet, meditative work that was originally published in Japanese in 1979, and while I felt that this story's cultural context was readily apparent as I was reading, it does have an introspective universality in its
...more
I was fascinated by this quietly told, subtle tale about control and the demand to function. When a young woman is left by her husband, she becomes the only provider for her 2-year-old daughter and has to juggle numerous, often contradictory expectations: She has to hold down her job at a library where she is expected to perform her tasks no matter what happens in her private life, she has to find her own way of being a single mother while defending herself against the ideas others - the
...more
!! NOW AVAILABLE !!
3.5 Stars
Originally published in monthly installments in a literary Japanese magazine in the late 1970s, in twelve sections over the course of a year, Yuko Tsushima is considered one of the most noteworthy Japanese writers of her generation. The English translation is by Geraldine Harcourt.
”The apartment had windows on all sides.
“I spent a year there, with my little daughter, on the top floor of an old four-storey office building. We had the whole fourth floor to ourselves, ...more
3.5 Stars
Originally published in monthly installments in a literary Japanese magazine in the late 1970s, in twelve sections over the course of a year, Yuko Tsushima is considered one of the most noteworthy Japanese writers of her generation. The English translation is by Geraldine Harcourt.
”The apartment had windows on all sides.
“I spent a year there, with my little daughter, on the top floor of an old four-storey office building. We had the whole fourth floor to ourselves, ...more
Oct 15, 2018
Trudie
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
powells-indiespensible,
translated
A slim novel taking place over the course of a year and narrated by a recently separated mother who is struggling to adjust to solo parenting her adorably naughty three year old daughter. The writing in this caught my attention immediately, it is beautiful especially her descriptions of light. There is something very similar here to the way Robin Robertson writes about the play of light only in this book it is often full of colour. The images of the bright red kitchen floor, the silver painted
...more
Nov 30, 2018
Jenny (Reading Envy)
rated it
really liked it
Shelves:
read2018,
location-japan,
translated,
women-in-translation,
around-the-world,
reviewcopy,
ebooks
This is a quick translated work from Japan, about a woman who has separated from her husband and is trying to raise her child. A lot of focus is on the buildings where they live - the rooms, the light, the water, the sounds, the neighbors, the space, the tatami.
'Territory of Light' primarily takes place in a small Tokyo apartment where the narrator's dark descent into mental instability contrasts with the constant flood of light which variably dazzle and disorientate the narrator and her young daughter. Darkness and lightness eventually combined and coalesce as the narrator, at the height of an epiphany, seeks to dissolve into light, drowning her grief and solitude into the perpetual stream of sunlight;
"No one must ever know about this place that made ...more
"No one must ever know about this place that made ...more
So ähnlich hätte vielleicht Sylvia Plath die Trennung von Ted Hughes in Prosa beschrieben.
This has been one of my favorite reads this year and can only give thanks to Geraldine Harcourt for such a lovely translation of Tsushima's wonderful novel. The book, originally released in the late 1970's as a twelve chapter serialization, recounts the actions, thoughts,and feelings of a young woman starting an independent life for her and her nearly three year old daughter during the initial year of a separation from her husband. Two things made this novel stand out. The first was Tsushima's
...more
In Territory of Light, you follow the life of a young woman and her infant daughter, living in Tokyo during the 1970s through a series of fragments. These fragments are taken from the first year after her separation with her husband.
Territory of Light is filled with beautifully crafted descriptions of surroundings. Actually, the entire book is written in a brilliant way. I have come to really admire Yuko Tsushima’s gift for writing. Many of the things that are described in the most detail are ...more
Territory of Light is filled with beautifully crafted descriptions of surroundings. Actually, the entire book is written in a brilliant way. I have come to really admire Yuko Tsushima’s gift for writing. Many of the things that are described in the most detail are ...more
Territory of Light was originally published in the Japanese literary monthly magazine between 1978 and 1979 with each chapter marking the months in real time. It is now being published in English translation in one instalment of multiple chapters. It won the inaugural Noma Literary Prize and Tsushima subsequently won many awards in her career. She died in February 2016.
The novel tells the story of a young woman separating from her husband and setting up a new life in a Tokyo apartment with her ...more
The novel tells the story of a young woman separating from her husband and setting up a new life in a Tokyo apartment with her ...more
This is a quiet, subtle piece of fine literature, but it just wasn't for me. I think this is one of the books you have to be in the right mood, moment or phase of your life in to fully cherish it. In my case, I couldn't really connect with it.
The unnamed narrator and her adorable young daughter start a life on their own after the seperation of their husband respective father. The story is told via twelve vignette-like chapters, which were originally published over the course of a year. I tried ...more
The unnamed narrator and her adorable young daughter start a life on their own after the seperation of their husband respective father. The story is told via twelve vignette-like chapters, which were originally published over the course of a year. I tried ...more
Sep 28, 2018
erica
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
from-author-or-publisher,
japan
Territory of Light is a short, intense book about one woman's first year after separating from her husband. It's a subtle book; Tsushima never explicitly tell us that the narrator is lonely, isolated, or depressed, but rather lets the reader witness her mental state as she struggles to raise her daughter without her husband. This story is beautiful and heartbreaking.
The territory of light from the title is the woman's new apartment, which is flooded with light from windows on all sides. Her ...more
The territory of light from the title is the woman's new apartment, which is flooded with light from windows on all sides. Her ...more
I enjoyed this, though I also found it slightly mistifying. The examination of loneliness and the struggles of parenthood are done really well, but I could have done with a bit more plot movement.
This story is about a woman who's husband leaves her. She is left to raise her child alone; mostly by her choice. She has chosen to raise her daughter and does not want her husband around. This is the first year of that separation as she tries to tend to herself and her daughter. She goes through ups and downs; mostly downs. There are times when she strikes out at her daughter becoming resentful at times of her. She leaves her home alone often and that was a bit disturbing to me. At other times
...more
4.5 stars. This began slowly for me. There was little to capture my attention in the first "chapter" (the novella collects 12 linked stories as a whole), which mostly attended to the narrator finding an apartment after a marital separation. But gradually the beauty of her poetic insight started to shine through quite literally as the novel plays with light and shadow and dreams and images as a reflection of the interior soul. As someone who was a single divorced mother for 9 years and started
...more
This novel is really beautiful. The writing feels unlike any other Japanese novel I've read, and I think at least some of its grace should be attributed to the translation by Geraldine Harcourt. It's impossible for me to know how much of this style came from the original Japanese, but either way, I found it striking and unique in comparison to the other Japanese translations I've read.
I felt a creeping sense of dread throughout the course of the entire novel, while also truly rooting for the ...more
I felt a creeping sense of dread throughout the course of the entire novel, while also truly rooting for the ...more
Yuko Tsushima was an award winning author in Japan, who following her death in 2016 is experiencing a resurgence of popularity in translation. Territory of Light, written in 1979 when she was in her early 30's, is composed of a series comprising a novel which was published chapter by chapter over the course of a year. Each month she followed her unnamed narrator as she traversed the transition between marriage and single motherhood, forging an identity and living with her (also unnamed)
...more
I really enjoyed this one - the story follows a woman living in Tokyo who has recently separated from her husband, and is left to raise her young daughter alone. She lives in a tiny apartment (6 tatami mats in size if that means anything to you) which is full of light, and spends much of her time keeping her cheeky daughter out of trouble. We follow them as they have run-ins with other tenants in the building, as her daughter navigates the wider world and as our protagonist navigates single
...more
I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I went into this not knowing what to expect but was pleasantly surprised. At just over 200 pages, this is a really quick read that I absolutely flew threw. The novel itself is divided into 12 segments and is written in the first person narrative, following the life of a young single mother who moves into a new home following the separation between her and her husband.
The narrator nor her child is named in the novel ...more
I went into this not knowing what to expect but was pleasantly surprised. At just over 200 pages, this is a really quick read that I absolutely flew threw. The novel itself is divided into 12 segments and is written in the first person narrative, following the life of a young single mother who moves into a new home following the separation between her and her husband.
The narrator nor her child is named in the novel ...more
A quiet and eerie novel which slowly crept up on me and I really liked it. A lot. Full of dreams and water and light, it had this great tone of otherworldliness mixed with the mundane and earthly stuff about motherhood and loneliness. The chapters, because they were written as monthly installments almost felt like connected short stories, which also somehow added to that sense of slight displacement and dreaminess..
4,5 stars. My review: https://theblankgarden.com/2019/02/15...
4.5 Stars
I loved this. A beautiful, dreamlike novella shot through with a strong sense of isolation that permeates the mind.
First published in the late 1970s as a series of interlinked short stories, Territory of Light focuses on a year in the life of a young mother, recently separated from her somewhat ambivalent husband. As the story opens, the unnamed woman – who narrates the novella – and her three-year-old daughter are newly established in a fourth-floor apartment with windows on all sides, ...more
I loved this. A beautiful, dreamlike novella shot through with a strong sense of isolation that permeates the mind.
First published in the late 1970s as a series of interlinked short stories, Territory of Light focuses on a year in the life of a young mother, recently separated from her somewhat ambivalent husband. As the story opens, the unnamed woman – who narrates the novella – and her three-year-old daughter are newly established in a fourth-floor apartment with windows on all sides, ...more
See more of my book reviews on my blog, Literary Flits
I didn't realise until I came to write this review that Territory Of Light was written in the 1970s. Several aspects of the woman's relationship and deference to her estranged husband annoyed me to the extent I was muttering 'Stand up for yourself!' at my Kindle. However, for a woman to be contemplating divorce and initiating the proceedings herself forty years ago, especially in socially conservative Japan, is a strong statement of her ...more
I didn't realise until I came to write this review that Territory Of Light was written in the 1970s. Several aspects of the woman's relationship and deference to her estranged husband annoyed me to the extent I was muttering 'Stand up for yourself!' at my Kindle. However, for a woman to be contemplating divorce and initiating the proceedings herself forty years ago, especially in socially conservative Japan, is a strong statement of her ...more
Based on the author’s own experience, this short novel tells of the experiences of a separated mother trying to adjust to life on her own with her 3 year old daughter. It’s an uphill struggle some days and we share in her frustration. The loneliness of life as a single mother is expertly portrayed, as each chapter describes a different episode in their daily life. It’s a slow-paced, often dreamy novel (with far too many actual dream sequences) and not much happens. Although firmly rooted in
...more
Oct 05, 2019
Kirsty
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
october-2019,
borrowed
Territory of Light, which was first published in a serialised form in a magazine between 1978 and 1979, has been variously described as 'spiky, atmospheric and intimate' (Spectator), and 'disturbing and dream-like' (Financial Times). The novella, which begins in springtime, takes as its focus a young woman, who has been abandoned by her husband, and who has to start a new life in a Tokyo apartment with her young daughter. Territory of Lightcharts the protagonist's life over the course of a
...more
Territory of Light covers one year of a woman's life after she separates from her husband and is trying to raise their two-year old daughter on her own. Told in interconnected stories, we see a mother who is trying and at times failing to keep it together - leaving her daughter with a friend's family to make both child and mother more peaceful; trying to find a new way of living now that's she's on her own and trying to remember how she lived before she married; trying to get by when what she
...more
عن الانفصال و محاولة العيش في استقلال غير اختياري حدثتني يووقو
بطلة الكتاب -أم لطفلة في الثالثة- اختار زوجها دون الرجوع لرأيها أن ينفصلا، لتجد نفسها تعيش في شقة قديمة تلعب دور الأم و الأب في آن (زوجها لا يدفع أي إعانة مادية لابنته).إلى جانب تجاربها مع ابنتها و مشاكلها مع زوجها و ما تتعرض له من إحراج في العمل و محيطها المجتمعي تخبرنا الكاتبة عن ما تمر به البطلة من اشتياق لزوج لم تختر أن تنفصل عنه و لكنها ترفض في ذات الوقت العودة إليه -رغم محاولاته المتكررة في آخر قصتين أن يلم شمل العائلة من ...more
بطلة الكتاب -أم لطفلة في الثالثة- اختار زوجها دون الرجوع لرأيها أن ينفصلا، لتجد نفسها تعيش في شقة قديمة تلعب دور الأم و الأب في آن (زوجها لا يدفع أي إعانة مادية لابنته).إلى جانب تجاربها مع ابنتها و مشاكلها مع زوجها و ما تتعرض له من إحراج في العمل و محيطها المجتمعي تخبرنا الكاتبة عن ما تمر به البطلة من اشتياق لزوج لم تختر أن تنفصل عنه و لكنها ترفض في ذات الوقت العودة إليه -رغم محاولاته المتكررة في آخر قصتين أن يلم شمل العائلة من ...more
قرأت هذا الكتاب أول مرة عام وعدت اليوم لقراءته حين وقعت عليه يدي وأنا أبحث في مكتبتي عن كتاب من الكتب الكثيرة التي أبتاعها لتبتلعها رفوف مكتبتي المكتظة حتى أنسى وجودها تماماً . حين عثرت على هذا الكتاب لم أستطع تذكر تفاصيل القصص لكن شعورا غامضا استبد بي فاسترجعت تلك الحميمية التي نشأت بيني وبين بطلة هذا الكتاب. وقد كنت أيامها أعيش ظروفا شبيهة بظروفها.. تلك المرأة اليابانية كانت تنسج قصصها القصيرة من حكايا يومياتها العادية بتفاصيل لا تحاول تلوينها أو المبالغة فيها تفادياً لإلحاق الضجر بسعادة
...more
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Readers also enjoyed
Yūko Tsushima is the pen name of Satoko Tsushima, a contemporary Japanese fiction writer, essayist and critic. She is the daughter of famed novelist Osamu Dazai, who died when she was one year old. She is considered "one of the most important Japanese writers of her generation" (The New York Times).
She has won many major literary prizes, including the Kawabata for "The Silent Traders," one of the ...more
She has won many major literary prizes, including the Kawabata for "The Silent Traders," one of the ...more
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“But my daughter, not minding, scampered off towards the pond. I ran after her, out of breath. A weeping willow stood at the point where the side path joined the main one. As it caught the rays of the sinking sun full on, its brightness was dazzling to eyes grown accustomed to the shadows. My daughter was jumping up and down, trying to grab one of the willow’s dangling branches. All right, I would wow her by grabbing a whole bunch. Shading my eyes with one hand, I approached my daughter in the light.”
—
1 likes
“Why were children the only ones who ever got to melt down?”
—
1 likes
More quotes…
